The Dubai government has enacted changes to the Dubai International Financial Centre's anti-money laundering laws following a self-assessment of the free zone’s capacity to fight financial crime.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, enacted the regulatory law of the DIFC, and subsequent changes to regulator the Dubai Financial Services Authority’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, with the changes to take effect on October 29, the government’s media office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The changes include strengthening provisions to supervise non-financial businesses in the DIFC, and strike them off the register in the event of non-compliance.
“The DFSA welcomes these changes and sees them as an important step towards enhancing the AML/counter terrorist financing regime,” said Bryan Stirewalt, chief executive of the DFSA.
“They will also improve the supervisory oversight of [financial and other institutions], and are appropriate changes to support the growth of the DIFC and continue to position it as the financial hub of choice for international firms in the region.”
The changes will also contribute to the UAE’s upcoming evaluation by a global AML standards body, Mr Stirewalt said. The country is gearing up to undergo assessment this year by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body set up in 1989 and responsible for developing and upholding policies to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other types of financial crime.
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If the UAE falls short in its FATF assessment, it would receive a negative report and risk being named as “unsatisfactory” or worse. The country received satisfactory status in its last review in 2008.
“The amendments will enhance [Dubai’s] anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime, and support the ongoing alignment of the DIFC regime with the FATF recommendations,” Dubai Media Office’s statement said.
The DFSA will apply a three-month grace period for DIFC-registered companies and other relevant bodies to comply with the amended law after it takes effect.
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match info
Maratha Arabians 138-2
C Lynn 91*, A Lyth 20, B Laughlin 1-15
Team Abu Dhabi 114-3
L Wright 40*, L Malinga 0-13, M McClenaghan 1-17
Maratha Arabians won by 24 runs
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
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Founder(s): Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech, micro finance
Initial investment: $1 million
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The Details
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Our rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
